Ring Around the Rosies
by envysparkler
Summary: Ring around the rosies/ Pocket full of posies/ Ashes, ashes/ We all fall down. An innocent nursery rhyme with a sinister twist...


NaCl: YAY! My first one-shot!

Lil bro: To be warned, this story was made under the influence of listening to Kagome, Kagome and watching Hoodwinked.

NaCl: It's kinda creepy...I got the inspiration from Circle You, Circle You by...

Lil bro: Don't tell me you've forgotten...

NaCl: It starts with a C?

Lil bro: (randomly) THE WOLF ISN'T THE BAD GUY IT'S THE EVIL BUNNY!

Burn: (comes in) Uh, what happened?

NaCl: (randomly) I KNOW! (starts jumping around, lil bro joins her)

Burn: Oh...my...god...I never knew Writer-chan had ADHD...

Disclaimer: If Writer-chan owned Inazuma Eleven, we would all be in big trouble...

NaCl & lil bro: (still jumping around)

Gazelle: (comes in) Did someone give Writer-chan Red Bull?

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><p><strong>Ring Around the Rosies<strong>

_Ring around the rosies,_

_Pocket full of posies,_

_Ashes, ashes,_

_We all fall down._

The mother stared fondly at the four children who were looking up to her eagerly.

"Fine, I'll tell you a story."

"YAY!" the children cheered, their mother's stories were always the best.

"This is a scary story, however…" The fire dimmed, adding to the overall effect. Each child sat enthralled as their mother began.

"One day, a long time ago, when this house was a broken-down orphanage, there were four orphan siblings named Endou-kun, Gouenji-kun, Natsumi-chan, and Aki-chan. They were well taken care of by their onii-chan and onee-chan, Hitomiko-chan and Kudou-kun."

"That's your and Papa's name also!" one of the little boys shouted at his foster-mother.

"Shush, Toramaru!" a girl with purple hair and blue eyes said. The mother smiled and continued.

"However, the siblings were tired of taking care of the four children. These four loved to play ring around the rosies and used to go often into the neighboring woods and play. Kudou-kun would often yell at them for getting all muddy. But Hitomiko-chan had a better idea…"

"She told them a story about the best place in the forest to play," her husband's voice continued, "Where there were pretty flowers and soft grass and no mud. A place deep in the forest. But what she didn't tell them was of the deep gorge that lay nearby…"

"Kudou-kun caught onto his sister's scheme and agreed, telling them to go. The little children happily skipped to the meadow. They didn't notice the cliff. But before they started playing, they remembered their sister's advice to make a fire so the wild animals wouldn't eat them. They gathered some dry wood and soon had a big fire going. They played and played until it was getting quite dark."

_Ring around the rosies,_

_Pocket full of posies,_

_Ashes, ashes,_

_We all fall down._

"They started to play another round, but this time when they fell down, they realized with horror that the fire had gotten out of control. By the time they had got up and started to run, the flames were already feeding on them. Half-charred, they stumbled away from the searing flames and the hazy smoke. They blindly ran in the worst direction…off the cliff."

The children gasped as their father finished. Toramaru clung to a little boy named Tobitaka who was staring in fear at their mother. The purple haired girl, Fuyuka, whimpered and hid behind a blue haired girl named Haruna.

"But that's not the end of the story. Hiroto-kun and Reina-chan were friends with Endou-kun and the others and when they didn't show up, began to get worried. They asked Hitomiko-chan where they were but she just smiled sweetly and said that they were playing in the forest. That night, Hiroto-kun and Reina-chan went in search of their friends."

"They had tripped over roots, gotten scratched by branches and scraped their knees as they forged through the forest. They reached the clearing and stared in shock at the ashes covering the ground. Suddenly the moon disappeared beneath a cloud and they could hear footsteps…"

**-Flashback-**

"_Wh-who is it?" a little red haired boy called out nervously, his blue haired sister, cowering at his side._

"_It's us, of course," they visibly relaxed as they heard Endou-kun's voice, "Did you come to play with us?"_

_Hiroto-kun happily smiled and agreed. He didn't see the burnt faces in the pitch-black night nor their pale skin or wicked smiles._

_They all joined hands and began singing, going around in a circle._

_Ring around the rosies._

_Reina-chan suddenly noticed how cold Aki-chan's hand was._

_Pocket full of posies._

_Hiroto-kun found Gouenji-kun gripping his hand tighter and tighter._

_Ashes, ashes._

_They both could feel that they were being herded somewhere, ashes crumbling under their feet._

_We all fall down._

_The moon suddenly appeared and Hiroto-kun and Reina-chan could see their friends' leering smiles. Laughing, they pushed the terrified Hiroto-kun and Reina-chan._

_Pushed them off the cliff._

**-Flashback-**

"Those two were never seen again. But Kudou-kun and Hitomiko-chan found out that the gorge had special properties, anyone who touched the bottom was immortal, as a month later a viciously grinning Natsumi-chan knocked on Hitomiko's door. The four kids would never forgive their older siblings for trying to kill them. But the gorge, while making them immortal, also made them cursed. So they wanted something…"

"They wanted more playmates. Fearfully, Hitomiko-chan and Kudou-kun agreed, every month sending a couple of kids into the forest. Every month at the new moon, the haunting song was sung again."

_Ring around the rosies,_

_Pocket full of posies,_

_Ashes, ashes,_

_We all fall down._

"The children who were sent in were never heard of again except for that moonless night every month when the eerie song would drift even to the nearby village. Soon the orphanage was shut down but Kudou-kun and Hitomiko-chan continued living there, sending kids every month."

"Papa, is it the very same house we're in?" the little boy named Tobitaka piped up.

"It certainly is," the father, a man named Kudou, said.

That night, all four children crept out of bed and met at the back door. There was one thing on their mind; to see if the ghost story was true. They tiptoed out the back, not noticing the two pairs of eyes that watched them from the shadows.

They nervously stepped across the lawn and entered the forest that lay at the edge of the lawn. It was a new moon tonight, Artemis hiding her face, but each found their way through the forest surprisingly quickly. They reached the meadow and sighed in disappointment, there was nothing there.

_Or so they thought._

"Did you come to play with us?" a brown-haired boy wearing an orange headband stepped out of the trees; two girls, one with auburn hair, the other with greenish black hair, at his side. More kids followed the three. Their faces couldn't be seen.

Toramaru relaxed, these children looked too sweet to be the immortal children in the story.

"Sure!" Fuyuka replied, not listening to her older brother and sister telling them that they should leave.

Reluctantly, Haruna and Tobitaka also joined hands with the children and began to walk in a circle.

_Ring around the rosies,_

_Pocket full of posies,_

_Ashes, ashes,_

_We all fall down._

The villagers shut their windows and locked their doors at the first note of the haunting song, knowing what would come next. Four long screams shattered the peaceful and calm night.

On the back porch of their house, a couple stood listening to the screams. When they stopped, Hitomiko and Kudou grinned at each other.

A month later, the couple adopted two adventurous boys, Kidou-kun and Sakuma-kun. The very same night, if you were in the forest, you could hear many children sweetly singing a nursery rhyme.

If you listened closely, you could tell that it had a dark twist, sung by the immortal, cursed children.

_Ring around the rosies,_

_Pocket full of posies,_

_Ashes, ashes,_

_We all fall down._

It wouldn't take long for the screams to start.

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><p>NaCl: REVIEW!<p>

Lil bro: NO FLAMES PLEASE!

Gazelle & Burn: (look to Kidou trying to hide in a corner) Did you give them the Red Bull?

Kidou: (taping the whole thing) Shush...

ANYWAY REVIEW! PRETTY, PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP! _**R&R**_!


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